Preparation

Even though it was still afternoon and Markos could have gone to see Elena, he decided against it. He desperately wanted to see his little sister again. But Markos knew that he was not in an ideal mental state.

He did not want to break down in front of Elena and frighten her. He was completely broken after her death, to the point that it drove him to his death. But that was no longer important, he was given a second chance.

Markos could not stop laughing. His world had crumbled before his eyes, but now he could save his sister. If the doctors were not lying to him, all Elena needed was proper treatment and enough time. Had it not been for the fact that he had started Exodia Quest too late, he would have had enough money to take care of all of Elena's needs and transfer her to a large hospital with top specialists.

'All those guys always praised my talent and told me that I could have been one of the strongest players. They better be right, or I will kill them for lying to me.' Markos remembered all the times people looked at him with pity for wasting his talent.

Markos needed them to be right. His little sister's treatment was sure to be very expensive. He would have to spend at least a couple of million to get her to the best hospital for the best treatment.

Elena's injuries had been torturing her body for some time and she was currently on a countdown towards the point where nothing could be done to help her.

Markos had to become one of the best Exodia Quest players to do this. After five years, a player in the top 500 of his class, as he had been in his previous life, could earn up to ten million a year if lucky. However, this was only after years of development and the worldwide acceptance of Exodia Quest.

This is exactly why Markos started playing Exodia Quest in the first place. When Elena turned eighteen, the minimum salary he received from his job became insufficient to pay for the hospital and his needs, so Markos was forced to grit his teeth and make a risky decision.

Since it was impossible for someone like him with only compulsory education to get a better job, he had to take a chance on becoming a gold farmer in Exodia Quest.

Though he barely made minimum wage at first, and the money he had saved from his parents' insurance policy was about to run out, luck finally smiled on him. He discovered a secret mission that rewarded him with millions of dollars worth of equipment.

Unfortunately, it was a mission that would not be unlocked for another year and a half until the first Exodia Quest expansion. Markos would have to find other ways to make money in-game during this initial phase.

'Huh, even though I missed the first two years of the game, I luckily know some secret missions that are available in the beginning that can help me a lot. Even though the money I can make from them is not significant, I should be able to benefit enough from them to get into the Server Top 50 and attract the attention of a guild with a strong enough corporation backing it.' As he thought about it, Markos' palms began to tremble and sweat.

While one of the reasons he had not joined a guild in his past life was that he could make a lot of money as an assassin, there was another more important reason why he had not.

The death of his parents at a young age and the responsibility of taking care of his younger sister made Markos an extremely lonely person. Although he told himself for years that he did not interact with others by choice, his lie blew up in his face when he started playing Exodia Quest on a more professional level.

It was really difficult for Markos to have a long conversation with the other players, so he decided to take a different route to avoid this problem. Working as an assassin allowed him to have minimal contact with others and focus on making money.

However, this was a profession that had a very limited market in the early days of the game, so it was very difficult to make money. He would have to do something else in this life.

Although he did not like the idea of having to deal with other people, Markos was willing to do anything to save his little sister. As long as he was skilled enough to be one of the guild's important members, no one would care about his communication problems. All guilds were full of arrogant people with troublesome personalities, but they still received million-dollar contracts in exchange for their services.

However, before thinking about the money he could earn in the future, Markos had to focus on the present. Exodia Quest was a free game, but to play it, a Virtual Reality console with sufficient immersive capabilities was needed.

With this in mind, Markos took his cell phone and entered his bank details. Once he saw the money he had, he couldn't help but frown.

He currently had $70000 in the account. Considering that this year's minimum wage was $3000, it was a considerable amount.

However, the VR headset was quite expensive. The cheapest headset to be able to play Exodia Quest was $8000, but only those players with little money were willing to use it as it only offered 85% coordination.

Although this was not a problem for casual players, for someone like Markos who aspired to be one of the best, such a level of coordination would bring him a lot of difficulties.

To be the best, it was necessary to have the best tools. Although Markos did not have enough money at the time to buy a VR headset with 99% sync, fortunately, the money left over from his parent's insurance plan was enough to buy a good enough VR headset.

Markos couldn't run out of money so he decided to buy a $60,000 VR headset with 94% sync. Once he had a few hundred thousand dollars in the bank, he would upgrade to the best VR headset on the market.

Delivery would be tomorrow, so Markos made a wise decision and decided to sleep to let his brain rest.

The flood of memories assaulting his brain left him exhausted, so rest was necessary.

Exodia Quest would start at midnight the next day, so he was in no hurry to create his character and organize the information he had about the first days of the game. This was a problem for the Markos of tomorrow, the Markos of today badly needed to rest.